In a clash between two of the most-hyped duelists in the world, LEVIATÁN LEVIATÁN Latin America South Rank #1 Demon1 Max Mazanov tex Ian Botsch kiNgg Francisco Aravena aspas Erick Santos C0M Corbin Lee and Talon Esports Talon Esports Asia-Pacific Rank #15 Crws Thanamethk Mahatthananuyut JitBoyS Jittana Nokngam primmie Papaphat Sriprapha ban Joseph Seungmin Oh Governor Peter No bumped heads to open up play in Group C at Champions Seoul. Leviatán, the reigning Americas champions, came out on top 2-0.

The two-map series was played out on Bind, Ascent, and Sunset, with Bind being Talon Esports's pick, Ascent being Leviatán's pick, and Sunset being the decider. Leviatán won Bind 13-11, and won Ascent 13-8, making Sunset unnecessary.

Already with one Champions trophy under his belt, aspas has proven himself as one of the best duelists in the world. Opposite of the stage to him on Saturday was primmie , a rookie who made his professional debut in July in the knockout stage of Pacific Stage 2 Playoffs.

Bind saw Leviatán rely on a few moments of heroic play, having to play scrappy Valorant to secure wins. Talon Esports led the match at one point, but Leviatán went on to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

Leviatán 's C0M is perhaps the last player in the world you'd want to turn your back on. In round 22, with his team down two players in a 3v5, he'd play through his Viper's pit, finding a crucial triple kill to tie the game up.

C0M's 3K would secure the map-tying 22nd round for Leviatán .

After recovering from being put on seemingly their last leg, Leviatán would secure the next two rounds to win the map 13-11.

While all eyes were trained on the Yoru of primmie, who joined Talon Esports in July and made his debut in the knockout stage of [Pacific Stage 2 Playoffs], teammate Governor impressed on Neon. Governor finished the map 20-17, which led his team in kills.

After the match, Talon Esports head coach FrosT reflected on his team's performance, mentioning round-altering mistakes.

“At this point you can't be making mistakes and giving people rounds or doing things that you're not supposed to be doing. This has been a consistent problem of ours since, I would say, the start of this roster,” he said. “At some point we either are going to develop and not make these mistakes, or people like me are gonna be out of a job.”

Talon Esports went for an eyebrow-raising team comp on Ascent. Dubbed the ‘Zombie Comp' due to its agents having four different ways of coming back from the dead, the composition first made waves when Talon Esports used it to defeat DRX DRX Korea Rank #7 Flashback Cho Min-hyuk (조민혁) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) Athan Na Ha-jun (나하준) freeing No Ha-jun (노하준) HYUNMIN Song Hyun-min (송현민) earlier this year on the same map.

Playing Sage on Ascent, primmie seemed to shake off the rust of the last map. He was the bright spot on a team that found itself down 8-4 at halftime.

He finished the map with a server-leading 22 kills. None of his teammates finished with more kills than deaths.

Four straight rounds from Talon Esports seemed to narrow the gap between the two teams, but they would be the last rounds the Thailand-based team secured. Excellent play from aspas, who found seven out of his 16 kills came from the operator, helped Leviatán escape what would have been quite the upset.

Talon Esports head coach FrosT seemed to pinpoint his team's pace of play following the match, while also acknowledging how well they played against the number-one seed from the Americas region.

“This [match] should have been a very, very, very good wake-up call for them in order to make sure they tighten their things up, because this could have definitely gone the other way,” FrosT said following the match. “I do think [Leviatán] certainly deserves credit for not only beating us, but especially on Ascent, punishing us for either being too slow or too stupid in certain situations.”

Leviatán will play the winner of Team Vitality Team Vitality Europe Rank #9 trexx Nikita Cherednichenko Derke Nikita Sirmitev Kicks Kimmie Laasner Sayf Saif Jibraeel Less Felipe de Loyola Basso and Trace Esports Trace Esports China Rank #3 LuoK1ng Zhang Zhanpeng (张展鹏) Kai Lu Zhinan (卢智楠) FengF Song Xuefeng (宋学锋) heybay Ho Shun Hei Biank Zhong Jianfei (钟剑飞) Zhao on August 7, while Talon Esports play the losing team on August 11.